While I know Winds of Winter, with its random VP's, is not everyone's favourite, I rather like it an was looking forward to a hard fought, bloody melee. We both had 8 activations, with my Lannister forces augmented with two units of mercenaries, while the Starks had one unit of Flayed men...
My Lannisters:
NCU's : The High Sparrow (C) and using the High Seneschal Model as left my Sparrow at home
Tyrion Lannister (The Imp)
3 x Knights of Casterly Rock
1 x Flayed Men
1 x Flayed Men in Clegane Livery
Gregor Clegane, the Mounted Behemoth
Raymond Grieves forces of the North consisted of:
2 x Stark Outriders
2 x Tully Cavaliers
1 x Flayed Men with Brynden Tully (C)
3 NCUs: Peter Baelish, Sansa and Arya Stark
Board set up: 2 marshes, 1 palisade and 1 spikes. No Weirwoods nor corpse piles, must be a first!!! Objectives are placed solely to influence some of the secret mission cards.
I had first turn, and set up right and centrally, to concentrate my forces. Raymond had left one outriders of to my right, which was fine as gave me numerical superiority elsewhere...
With no Mission cards in use til turn 2, turn 1 was all about manouvring
TURN 1
I was my usual subtle self, getting everything up and in my opponents face, as figured I have the better armour and am more use on the charge...
Raymond did have the first turn next round, but I wanted options to engage too...
Still, Raymond wasn't hanging about...
Sudden Charge card was played and the Tully Cavaliers thundered in...
Fortunately, I had the High Sparrows card "Protection of the Father" so of the 5 wounds, only 2 were taken...
The NCU board at end of turn 1
TURN 2
The first revealed mission was to award points if an opponent failed a Morale check.
I also reveled mine, which was to score a point for every successful flank or rear charge...
In response to my card, Raymond sent his Outriders into my right hand Knights, to deny them a flank charge on his Cavaliers... I suffered a few scratches, then promptly failed my panic check, awarding the first VP to Raymond.
I then ignored the obvious flank charge into the left of his cavaliers, as I planned to get The Mounatin in there, so I manouvered around the marsh and my middle Knights went into the Flayed Men and Brynden, scoring 12 solid hits but with such good armour, only 4 wound went through.
In response, Bryndens unit were NCU'd on swords and struck back, for minimal damage but another failed panic test gifting him a second VP.
Still, I'd gained the upper hand and decided to force my luck with Tyrion taking the Crown and playing Hear me Roar. Raymond countered with a Stark card to bolster his morale but it didnt help his dice, as Brynden was left alone...
Raymons next activation was to retreat Brynden rather than attack and risk Lannister Supremacy, and try and llow him to heal up. But this left my second Flayed Men with an opportunity to charge home with the Wrath of the Warrior, thus gaining 2+ to hi and sundering and deny the charge bonus to the Tully's.
I took a mid-turn shot to show the way the board looked, with the Lannister forces looking dominant...
Raymond retreated his Cavaliers out of melee with the Clegane Flayed Men, to protect his commanders unit and deny a flank charge by The Mountain. Undeterred by the marsh, Gregor rolled his two dice and hit hard, all 4 hits cutting into the Tully's
Who then promptly failed their morale check in spectacular style (aided by my second Hear me Roar card)
Having healed up Bryndens unit with the money bags, another Sudden Charge (or similar) allowed teh Flayed Men to hit home hard against my Knights...
On one wound, I passed my test with the High Sparrows influence, triggering Lannister Supremacy...
And its fair to say, Raymond was having no luck with his morale...
With me first next turn, Sansa's ability allowed for his Outriders to move and then charge in to finish of my Knights engaged with Brynden...
End of Turn 2.
Stark on 4 VP's (2 from Secret Mission to hold an objective , 2 from failed Lannister morale check)
Lannisters on 3 VP's (all from failed Stark morales, as no flank or rear charges from me)
TURN 3
Hmmm. The open mission was kill the enemy commander for 4 VP's. Brynden is on 1 health and The High Sparrow is back in Kings Landing. It couldnt be any worse for House Stark and Raymond, but he wouldnt accept my having The Mountain as on board commander to his credit...
Worht showing the predicament the Stark commander was in. And off to the left as you look his remaining Tullys were in danger of being over-run by more Flayed Men and Casterly Knights...
We both revealed our missions, while mine was straightforward, Raymond put his on the Outriders in front of Brynden, as they would need to be cleared out way...
First up, Arya took her free move ability to move Brynden behind palisade. I activated first, taking Crown to try and get an easy kill on Brynden but it failed. Taking swords, Baelish allowed the Tullys hit my Flayed men while slipping sideways as they went and using some cars to score 9 hits... I was lucky I decided to use Protection of the Father again, otherwise I'd have taken 8 wounds instead of 4...
I failed my morale again though. Then my Knights hit home and reduced Tullys down, they retreated next actiavaiton and I took moneybags to heal up Flayed Men.
NCU of Starks took cards, and my weakened Flayed Men charged in, but failed to finish of Tully's. Raymond mentioned he wished he'd chosen them for his mission as that would have been three extra points....
But Brynden activated and hit my flank, dropping my Flayed Men to 2 wounds...
Still, I had my right flank to go still. Spoiled for choice, I felt the Knights to the flank was best to go first...
13 hits to the flank suggest I was right and saving on 6+ meant 11 wounds got through and the morale check was failed...
The would marsh hamper getting to Brynden, although the North remembers was triggered and Bryndens unit reactivated...
He valiantly finished off my Flayed Men and retreated to face the storm...
I moved The Mountain up to cover centre and would send his Flayed Men up to close trap around the Stark centre. But I couldn't kill Brynden!!!
End of Turn 3.
No scoring for Starks, 4 VP's
1 point for destroying an enemy unit, 4 VPs total for Lannister
TURN 4
Open mission to have an enemy unit with all 3 conditions on them at turn end. Both Raymond and I kept ours secret.
Raymond went to activate Brynden, and I used Paid Mutiny, for which he promptly failed to pass the required morale. I then activated my left Knights and flanked the Cavaliers, wiping them out.
This revealed my mission, scoring two VP's for destroying a unit that had not activated.
So just into Turn 4, and the Starks had one unit of Outriders left. Anf they failed a long charge on a 1...
The Lannisters plan to chase after them but Baelish taking crown and using letters allow them to make a good fist of escaping...
However, at end of Turn 4 the VP's were a s follows:
Lannisters on 6, up 2 for completing their mission.
Starks on 7, up 3 for completing their mission of having taken both letters and crown.
TURN 5
The open mission favoured me, as I had first activation and was nearest. Score 4 VPs if you control centre objective. I couldn't score off my own as needed three opponents units...
Given the Outriders order allowing them to retreat, I decided best thing to do was to use the Clegane Flayed Men to move onto the centre objective. Raymond's secret mission had to be revealed, for which he needed to hold an objective of his choice, while unengaged by the enemy. He chose the one closest to his Outriders, and charged into the Mountain, who saved all the hits. I took the objective he needed and then manoeuvred around for next turn...
having secured the centre objective already...
I scored the 4 extra points
End of Turn 5
Starks 7 VP's, Lannisters 10 VP's
TURN 6
The open mission was to award 1 VP for a successful charge and my mission had to be revealed, which meant if I didn't use my NCUs on board I could claim a VP for each one not activated there...
Raymond activated first, sending his Outriders into my Lannister Knight in his front.
They did some damage, but were then hit in the flank by the other unit of Knights. Taking the swords, the Outriders attacked again but didn't roll well. When my Knights attacked back, they were lacklustre and the Outriders retreated.
Even worse, expending the weakened tokens left the Outriders laughing at the Mounted Behemoth...
The game finished with a Lannister Victory, but closer than it looked with Raymond hidden mission being another NCU won, gaining him 3 VP's plus 1 for charging. I gained 2 for the charges and 2 for the secret mission.
Ending the game on Lannister 14, Stark 11.
Valiant to the end...
Despite the overwhelming on board superiority, the random and secret missions made the game a lot closer than it looked on the board. Turn 2 started badly for me with 2 failed panic tests, but Raymonds dice deserted him there after, with his forces being decimated and facing an uphill struggle. Still, he never gave up and had the mission in tunr 5 been kinder, he may have held out for a win. (After last game we played, its no surprise we play to the death) (Though sadly, those Outriders wouldn't!!!)
Another great game, and one of the lesser played missions. Following on from this cavalry battle, we'll be playing a siege mission this coming week, in A Storm of Swords...
A great report Brian, I look forward to the siege game.
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